José Mojica Marins
José Mojica Marins (born March 13, 1936), Brazilian filmmaker, television and media personality. Marins is also known by his created alter ego Coffin Joe. Coffin Joe is the English equivalent of Zé do Caixão. Marins created the character in 1963 for the film At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul. The character went on to appear in many more films and as the character gained popularity he has portrayed and used the Coffin Joe persona in television programs, songs, music videos, and comic books. Although Marins is known primarily as a horror film director, his earlier works were westerns, drama, and adventure films. In the 1980's he became a prominent exploitation film director, including films in the pornochanchada genre, which were soft-core sex-comedies popular in Brazil at that time. Biography Main article: Biography Marins was born in São Paulo, Brazil at a farm in the Vila Mariana to Antonio and Carmem Marins. His interest in film-making began at an early age. When Marins was three, his father ran a local cinema, and the family lived in a flat above the theater. "Coffin Joe" Main article: Coffin Joe [[Video:15. Coffin Joe series (1960's) Monster Madness 2009 Review|thumb|300px|right|'Cinemassacres Monster Madness review]] Although rarely mentioned in the films, Coffin Joe's true name is '''Josefel Zanatas'. "I was thinking a name: Josefel: "fel" ("gall") for being bitter - and also Zanatas as a last name, because backward reads Satanas". Coffin Joe wears a black suit, a cape and a top hat. His most notable feature is his grotesque, long, curled fingernails. Marins grew his fingernails several inches long, always wearing them in public in the style of the character. Coffin Joe is an evil, amoral character who considers himself superior to others and exploits them to suit his purposes. He hates morality and religion to the point of obsession. Coffin Joe's argument is that (self) imposed religious limitations tend to prevent individual development and, as a consequence, inhibit social change and improvement. The primary theme of the character is his single-minded obsession with the "continuity of the blood"; he wants to sire the superior child from the perfect woman. His idea of a "perfect woman" is not exactly physical but someone he regards as more courageous and intellectually superior to the Brazilian average, and in this quest he is willing to kill anyone who crosses his path. "In a dream saw a figure dragging me to a cemetery. Soon he left me in front of a headstone, there were two dates of my birth and my death. People at home were very frightened, called a priest because they thought I was possessed. I woke up screaming, and at that time decided to do a movie unlike anything I had done. He was born at that moment the character would become a legend: Coffin. The character began to take shape in my mind and in my life. The cemetery gave me the name, completed the costume of Joe the cover of voodoo and black hat, which was the symbol of a classic brand of cigarettes. He would be a mortician." Films Main article: Filmography Marins became interested in cinema at a young age. He recounts that O Juzio Final (Judgement Day, 1948), filmed in 8 mm film, was his first film which he made as a teenager. He followed that film with Encruzilhada da Perdição (Crossroads to Perdition, 1952) Although most known for films in the horror genre, Marins also created exploitation, drugsploitation, sexploitation (often in the form of pseudo-documentaries), and westerns. Marins is noted for his low budget film style, and often used friends and amateur actors to portray characters and function as crew, and his films are generally set in São Paulo, Brazil. The Coffin Joe films The theme of the films in the Coffin Joe trilogy focuses on Coffin Joe's bloody and determined quest to find his perfect bride. At the end of each film, his plans are undone when, while he is haunted and pursued by authorities and those he wronged, in the end is seemingly killed by some means. The first Coffin Joe film, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma) (1963), is Brazil's first horror film. This is the first appearance of Coffin Joe. The film was followed by the second installment, This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver) (1967), wherein it is revealed that Joe survived his ordeal at the end of the first film and returns to São Paulo to continue his quest. Marins released Embodiment of Evil (Encarnação do Demônio) in 2008, in which Coffin Joe returns after 40 years in a prison mental ward and immediately proceeds to exploit, terrorize, and kill in order to find the perfect woman to bear his child. Marins played the character of Coffin Joe in his other films that, in addition to the basic genre of horror, had elements of exploitation and surrealism such as Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, Awakening of the Beast and The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe. In these films Coffin Joe is not the central character and generally inhabits an abstract realm such as nightmares, hallucinations, and hell. Despite its title, The Strange World of Coffin Joe does not contain the Coffin Joe character. Television Main article: Television Marins currently hosts a monthly interview program O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins'' (The Strange World of José Mojica Marins)' on the Brazilian television station ''Canal Brasil, which he hosts and discusses Brazilian media and culture with other contemporary figures such as actors and musicians. His guests have included Zé Ramalho, NX Zero, and Supla. The programs are viewable on the show's website. 1967-88 Marins hosted the program Além, Muito Além do Além (Beyond, Much Beyond the Beyond) Fridays on TV Bandeirantes Channel 13, with Marins embodying the Coffin Joe character presenting short horror tales written by author and screenwriter Rubens Luchetti. Some scripts were later adapted as Coffin Joe comic books. The show's tapes were reused and currently there are no intact recordings of this program. Marins directed and hosted The Show from the Other World (Um Show do Outro Mundo) on Rede Record de Televisão, Channel 7, presented on Saturdays from 11 pm to 1 am, with Mojica personifying Coffin Joe. The program featured several horror short-films during the half-hour program, with many of the stories sent in by the viewers themselves and adapted by members of Marins' production team. The original tapes were reused and there is no record of this material. In 1996 Marins hosted the daily television program '''''Cine Trash on TV Bandeirantes, which featured full-length horror films introduced by Marins. Documentaries The Universe of Mojica Marins (1978) (O Universo de Jose Mojica Marins) is a 26-minute documentary film by Ivan Cardoso. Marins portrays himself in the film which also features interviews with Marins' mother Carmem Marins, film editor Nilcemar Leyart, and Satã (Marins' assistant and bodyguard). A 2001 documentary film, Damned - The Strange World of José Mojica Marins (Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins), by biographers André Barcinski and Ivan Finotti examines Marins' life and his works. The documentary won the special jury prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. In 1987 Marins released the semi-autobiographical documentary film Demons and Wonders (Demônios e Maravilhas), in which Marins appears as himself re-enacting moments from his life, both good and bad. Marins' family and associates play themselves, including his mother Carmem Marins, former wife and film editor Nilcemar Leyart, and Satã, Marins' long-time assistant and bodyguard. Cultural references *Raymond Castile's independent short film, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tclc9Qkjkvc The Blind Date of Coffin Joe] parodies the character in a modern setting. *The Brazilian band Os Mutantes mentions Zé do Caixão in the lyrics to their song "Trem Fantasma" on their 1968 self-titled debut album. *The death metal band Necrophagia dedicates a song to the character on their album The Divine Act of Torture. The song re-tells At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and contains sound samples of Coffin Joe's voice. *The drummer of The Horrors has the stage name of Coffin Joe. *Zé do Caixão is mentioned amongst two other Brazilian legends, Zumbi and Lampião, in the song "Ratamahatta", from Sepultura's 1996 album Roots. He also performed an onstage 'blessing' for the band during their Barulho Contra Fome (Noise Against Hunger) concert which was the first gig of the Against tour in 1998. The recording of this turned up as a b-side entitled 'Prenuncio' on the Tribus E.P. and is occasionally still played by the band to open concerts. *The opening from Awakening of the Beast was sampled and used as the intro to White Zombie's song "I, Zombie." *The character of Hopey in "Wigwam Bam Part Four" of Jaime Hernandez's graphic novel Locas is shown watching At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul.